


happenstance

by tatoeba



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Actor!Chanyeol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, non-famous!jongin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 03:04:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11682711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatoeba/pseuds/tatoeba
Summary: when jongin tags along with his sister to the fanmeet of famous actor park chanyeol, he does not expect to be the one actually meeting him.





	happenstance

**Author's Note:**

> i've been in a bit of a writer's slump after finishing my fic for the baekxing fest and i've been missing chankai like crazy sO TODAY i finally looked at some prompts and was inspired by [this one](https://twitter.com/chankaiprompts/status/870737407397609472) from @chankaiprompts!!! it's been way too long since i've written chankai so this is really just wordvomit but i hope you enjoy it anyway T__TT
> 
> thank u to the lovely bianca for the quick read-through and the title!! ❤

Jongin shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans, hunches his shoulders in an attempt to appear smaller, less noticeable in the throng of screaming girls. Jongin has a list of things he doesn't like. The first is definitely socks, and the second is probably coffee, because that shit is poison no matter how much his sisters tell him otherwise. The third is probably crowds. Especially large, screaming crowds of girls in their teens and twenties, all bustling around him in anticipation to get a glimpse of the famous actor Park Chanyeol.

It's some ridiculous fanmeet that Park Chanyeol's agency put on: a lucky number of fans will get to get an autograph and even a photo op with him. It's all in promotion for his upcoming drama, where he plays the charming lead who sweeps the heroine off her feet. Or, well, so Jongin's heard. From his sister, who he's supposed to be here with, except she shoved her ticket into his hand to quickly run to the nearest bathroom, and instead Jongin is stuck here. Alone. Surrounded by very loud, very aggressive fans when he'd much rather be home.

Home is safe and quiet and has Monggu and his One Piece figurines and copies of Prince of Tennis that he's been re-watching lately with Kyungsoo. Jongin doesn't care about Park Chanyeol. Jongin isn't entirely sure he even knows what Park Chanyeol _looks_ like.

He's taking his phone out of his back pocket to discreetly web search him when there's the sudden crackle-pop of the speakers and a woman's voice speaks into a microphone. Jongin startles as he's pushed and jostled around, fans struggling to get closer to the small stage in the little outdoor venue where everything is set up. It's a hot August afternoon and being stuck in this crowd makes it all worse, but thankfully Jongin doesn't fall flat on his face or get run over. He manages to send off a quick text to his sister asking where the heck she is, and then looks up in time to see none other than Park Chanyeol himself (or whom Jongin assumes is Park Chanyeol because he still doesn't entirely know his face) walk up onto the stage.

"Hello everyone," says Park Chanyeol in a surprisingly low voice. The screams get even louder. Jongin is going to go deaf. "I'm glad that so many of you came out to see me today."

Someone in the audience yells, "I love you!" in the moment of silence after and it makes Chanyeol laugh. Jongin stares. He can...sort of see the appeal. His laugh booms through the speakers, on the edge of being too loud, but it looks genuine, like he's not fazed at all by the size of this crowd. Jongin supposes he wouldn't be though, seeing how he's so popular.

"We're going to call a few fans up for autographs and photos now!" calls out that woman from earlier. Jongin guesses she's some manager or MC and she's about a foot shorter than Chanyeol. Jongin wonders just how tall he is, but it's impossible to tell from where he is on the ground, looking up at Chanyeol on the stage several feet in front of him. "This will be totally random. We'll be using the numbers on your tickets, so please have them ready."

Jongin pulls out the ticket his sister had given him, and then glances around the vicinity, looking for her face. He just finds a sea of girls everywhere he looks. He checks his phone, but his sister hasn't responded, nor has she even read his message. Jongin should probably go look for her, but it's practically impossible for him to move from where he's squashed among the crowd. He's already getting sour looks from the few girls around him so he stops, turning back to face the stage, tucking his elbows into his sides.

The first girl that gets called on stage is in tears when she walks up. Chanyeol smiles at her and tells her not to cry; it's caught in the mic and the whole audience coos at once. It makes Chanyeol laugh, and he does a peace sign during the photo. The second girl who goes up is only about six years old and accompanied by her mother. Chanyeol looks positively delighted by the little girl and Jongin watches with a strange feeling burning in his chest. It's...cute. Chanyeol is kind of cute. They don't hear much of what he says to her, but the girl is beaming and gets a hug from Chanyeol, too. That makes the audience scream and Jongin can't tell if it's because they're upset or because they also think it's kind of adorable.

Chanyeol waves aggressively after the girl when she leaves the stage. Even her mother looks starstruck. Jongin chuckles under his breath. He's never been to something like this before. It's entertaining, even if the fans are loud.

"Okay, this will be our last one for now before we do a short Q&A!" says the MC. Jongin glances down at his sister's ticket as she reads out the numbers. His heart starts to slowly sink into his stomach as each one matches up perfectly, until the entire seven-digit sequence is complete. A perfect match.

No fucking way.

There's a rippling murmur through the crowd as everyone looks at their tickets and tries to find the winner. Jongin continues to stare stunned at his ticket, frozen in his spot. He doesn't know what to do.

"Come on now, don't be shy," the MC trills. "This is your only chance!"

Jongin looks up at the MC and then back at his ticket. The girl next to him notices his behavior and peers over to look at his ticket, then gasps loudly. "You got it!" she exclaims. "Go on up already!"

"But I--" Jongin starts, only the girl doesn't hear him. She's yelling out that she's found the winner and is shoving Jongin toward the stage.

Jongin's heart is so loud in his ears he thinks he might pass out. The crowd is making a path for him and his traitorous legs are moving him right up to the stage. No, he should explain, he should call his sister, he should run the other way, but he doesn't. He thinks that might be even more embarrassing than being the only male fan at Park Chanyeol's event. He can't be The Fan that Ran Away, right? That's definitely worse.

Except when he gets on stage, he thinks maybe he was wrong, because he can feel not just the audience staring at him but Park Chanyeol, too, who is much more handsome up close, holy shit. And he is tall--taller than Jongin, even. He's sporting that usual comma hair Jongin sees on idols and his eyes are bright, surprisingly soft. He's grinning widely at Jongin as he gets closer.

"It's so rare to get male fans," Chanyeol says to him. "I'm really happy you came."

"I--uh, yeah," Jongin says, swallowing down the _but it's supposed to be my sister up here_ because the look on Chanyeol's face is just too happy to destroy. He seriously looks excited to see Jongin. "I'm glad I came, too."

"What's your name?" Chanyeol asks as he sits down at the small table and pulls one of the posters close to sign.

Jongin's sister will kill him if he uses his own name, but he can't give _her_ name without explaining either. So Jongin quickly wracks his brain for a better solution and ends up blurting out, "Can you sign it to the _Kim family_?" When Chanyeol raises his brows in surprise, Jongin rushes to add, "My whole family is a huge fan of yours and it'd make their day."

That has Chanyeol laughing as he nods. "That's cute," he says and Jongin feels himself flushing inexplicably. "I'm glad your family likes me." He flicks his eyes back up at Jongin and his smile turns into a little of a smirk as he asks, "But I'd still like to know _your_ name, if you'll tell me."

It's just the summer heat that's making Jongin so hot. Definitely. He rubs his sweaty palms on his jeans and says, "I--Well--It's Jongin. I'm Jongin."

"Kim Jongin, huh?" Chanyeol says and the sound of his low voice saying Jongin's name makes a little shiver run down Jongin's spine. "It's nice to meet you."

"You, too," Jongin says quietly, wondering why it feels like he's being hit on.

Chanyeol finishes signing with a flourish and then it's time to take the photo. Jongin forces himself to take a few deep, calming breaths, hopes his face isn't red from all the embarrassment and horror of being up on stage with Park fucking Chanyeol, and then stands next to him while the professional cameraman peers at them from a few feet away. Chanyeol throws an arm around Jongin's shoulders, his hand impossibly warm where it rests against Jongin's bicep, and Jongin catches him holding up his other hand in a peace sign which Jongin guesses must be a signature pose. It makes him smile, despite everything, and then the camera shutter clicks off and it's over.

Chanyeol is turning to Jongin and holding out a hand to shake. Jongin takes it tentatively. His fingertips are a little rough, but their hands seem to fit together easily and that warmth he felt earlier runs all the way up his arm, al throughout his body, white-hot and soothing.

"It really was great to meet you, Kim Jongin," Chanyeol says.

Jongin nods, lets their hands fall apart and shoves his own back into his pocket. "Thanks for the sign and photo," he says. "Good luck on your drama," he tacks on after a moment, because it seems like the right thing to say, and he doesn't want to appear like he's not really a fan.

"Make sure you watch it!" Chanyeol yells after him as Jongin is ushered off the stage.

He's got the poster in one hand and a little envelope in the other that a bored-looking staff explains has information about when his photo should arrive in the mail and what to do if it never makes it. Jongin thanks everyone he passes, bowing his head repeatedly, then slips out into the audience again in time to see Chanyeol settling onto a high stool, ready to answer Q&A questions.

It shouldn't be possible, really, but Chanyeol catches Jongin's eye and smiles wider when he notices him, and Jongin's heart is about to beat right out of his chest.

" _There you are_!" says a familiar voice, making Jongin jump. He whirls around to find his sister, looking at him with equal parts amusement and disdain. "I can't believe you went up there!"

"You left me all alone!" he exclaims. "You _gave_ me your ticket! What was I supposed to do?"

His sister huffs and crosses her arms over her chest. "Well? How was he?"

He's really nice and really handsome, is Jongin's first thought and he quickly squashes that down before he blurts it out. "It was fine, I guess?" he says instead, doing his best to be nonchalant. "Here, he signed a poster for us." He thrusts it into his sister's arms. "Can we go home now?"

"Yeah, yeah," she says, already leading the way even though she's staring at the poster. "I'm tired of this crowd anyway."

"Me, too," Jongin says quietly. He casts one last look of his shoulder at Park Chanyeol, remembers the brightness of his gaze, the warmth of his touch, and then shakes his head and follows after.

 

-

 

Two weeks later, by which time Jongin has managed to mostly forget all about his encounter with Park Chanyeol, he gets a package in the mail. Well, it's not so much a package as it is a large brown envelope that says DO NOT BEND across the front and he stares at it for the longest time before he realizes what it must be. The photo from the event.

Jongin considers just burning the whole thing without even opening it. He's not sure he even wants to see what face he made on stage with Park Chanyeol. He's not sure he wants anything to remember that day by. The poster he'd gotten signed is now in his sister's room, along with her other Park Chanyeol memorabilia, but this is something Jongin will have to keep for himself.

He's already dealt with his friends teasing him about the event. Fanaccounts and fancams of the "cute male fan" had hit the internet within two days of Jongin meeting Chanyeol. There were a distressing number of people wondering about his name because, according to them, Jongin was just as handsome as Chanyeol and should totally be an actor, too.

"There's already people shipping you two," Sehun told Jongin gleefully. He's taken to reading all the comments and posts about Jongin to him since Jongin stopped looking after the first day.

Now that Jongin has the photo, he's going to have to make sure no one _ever_ sees it. He won't be like the other fans from the event who have posted their pictures online as proof. Nope, Jongin is taking this with him to the grave.

He locks himself in his room to open the envelope. There's a letter, thanking him for attending the fanmeet and for supporting Park Chanyeol. And then there's the photo, printed on glossy paper. Chanyeol's got his arm around Jongin's shoulders and he's grinning widely, and Jongin...Jongin is smiling, too, and it's not as frightened as Jongin expected. It's relaxed and soft. It's his usual kind of smile and it makes Jongin let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.

It's a nice picture. Chanyeol is...nice to look at, too. Maybe Jongin won't burn it after all.

He sets the photo aside and picks up the envelope to toss away when another slip of paper falls out. Frowning, Jongin watches as it lands on the floor before he picks it up. It's a small square piece of paper with a phone number and a note:

_I didn't get to tell you when we met, but I thought you were cute, too. Call me sometime!  
Park Chanyeol_

And much like the other day, Jongin stares at the slip of paper in stunned silence. He can't be reading this right. It must be a mistake. But the more he looks at it, the more real it becomes, and Jongin is sinking to the edge of his bed in awe because holy shit. Park Chanyeol really had been hitting on him.

He glances back to the photo, takes in Chanyeol's handsome face and runs through his options.

In the end, some few hours later, Jongin's hidden the photo between his Madoka Magica DVDs and has Chanyeol's number saved onto his phone. Maybe going to that fanmeet wasn't such a bad idea, after all.

 **to: park chanyeol  
** **sent: 1:17pm**  
you're not so bad yourself

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. i might come back to this verse tbh it would be a fun place to play around with but for now this is all i can manage lol 
> 
> 2\. i love u chankai im sorry i've neglected u for so long bc of fucking baekhyun
> 
> 3\. thank u for reading!!! i hope u enjoyed!


End file.
